James Elkins teaches at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. He is author, most recently, of the novel Weak in Comparison to Dreams (Unnamed Press, Los Angeles). His writing focuses on the history and theory of images in art, science, and nature. Some of his books are exclusively on fine art (What Painting Is, Why Are Our Pictures Puzzles?). Others include scientific and non-art images, writing systems, and archaeology (The Domain of Images, On Pictures and the Words That Fail Them), and some are about natural history (How to Use Your Eyes). Recent books include What Photography Is, written against Roland Barthes’s Camera Lucida; Artists with PhDs, second edition; and Art Critiques: A Guide, third edition. Beginning in 2015, impelled by the general lack of experimental writing in art history, he has been working on an experimental novel with images. See www.jameselkins.com.